Aerosol dynamics in dental clinics: Effects of ventilation mode on the mitigation of airborne diseases transmission.

Dental operations inherently involve a high risk of airborne cross-infection among medical staff and patients due to the exposure of respiratory secretions, which contain pathogenic microorganisms and typically spread in the form of aerosols. In order to contribute to the understanding of aerosol dynamics during dental operation and efficiently mitigate their dispersion and deposition through appropriate ventilation, 3D numerical simulations and full-scale experimental measurements were performed in this study. The indoor airflow distribution and dynamic aerosol behaviors observed under three optimized ventilation schemes (Scenario I-III) were compared with those observed under the current ventilation system.

Spontaneous Cargo Transport via Sliding Bubbles on a Superhydrophobic Wire.

The transportation and carrying behavior of underwater bubbles have been widely used for an underwater microactuator, cargo displacement assembly, and drug delivery. This study explores a method for underwater cargo transportation using sliding bubbles as a vehicle with directionally guided superhydrophobic wires. By exploitation of the adhesion between superhydrophobic surfaces and bubble interfaces, a bubble is able to transport a superhydrophobic O-ring along a superhydrophobic wire, effectively delivering the O-ring to the water surface.

Accelerated quadratic penalty dynamic approaches with applications to distributed optimization.

In this paper, we explore accelerated continuous-time dynamic approaches with a vanishing damping α/t, driven by a quadratic penalty function designed for linearly constrained convex optimization problems. We replace these linear constraints with penalty terms incorporated into the objective function, where the penalty coefficient grows to +∞ as t tends to infinity. With appropriate penalty coefficients, we establish convergence rates of O(1/t) for the objective residual and the feasibility violation when α>0, and demonstrate the robustness of these convergence rates against external perturbation.

Zdhhc1- and Zdhhc2-mediated Gpm6a palmitoylation is essential for maintenance of mammary stem cell activity.

Adult mammary stem cells (aMaSCs) are vital to tissue expansion and remodeling during the process of postnatal mammary development. The protein C receptor (Procr) is one of the well-identified surface markers of multipotent aMaSCs. However, an understanding of the regulatory mechanisms governing Procr's protein stability remains incomplete.

[Correlation of CD4/CD8Ratio in Peripheral Blood with Prognosis of Mantle Cell Lymphoma].

Objective: To investigate the correlation of peripheral blood T lymphocyte subsets with overall survival (OS) and clinical baseline characteristics in mantle cell lymphoma (MCL).

Methods: The clinical data of 55 MCL patients who were newly diagnosed in the Department of Hematology, Second Hospital of Shanxi Medical University from January 2012 to July 2022 were analyzed retrospectively. The percentages of T lymphocyte subsets and CD4/CD8 ratio in peripheral blood were detected by flow cytometry, and their correlation with clinical characteristics of patients were analyzed.

Optimizing gelation properties of mixed meat myofibrillar proteins: investigating the effects of different proportions of beef, pork and chicken on physicochemical, structural and gelation properties.

Background: The gelation properties of myofibrillar protein (MP) directly affect the texture, taste and water-holding capacity (WHC) of meat products. To enhance the gelation properties of single-species meat MP, the present study investigated the influence of different proportions of beef, pork and chicken MP on the physicochemical properties, structure and gelation properties of the MP.

Results: The results revealed that, when the proportion reached 5:2:3, the particle size decreases, leading to the maximum decomposition and unfolding of MPs, which exposes a greater number of hydrophobic amino acid residues.

Prognostic factors in lung transplantation after extracorporeal membrane oxygenation bridging therapy: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) has recently emerged as a critical support system for lung function in patients awaiting lung transplantation. This meta-analysis investigates the prognostic factors of lung transplantation following ECMO bridging therapy.

Methods: A comprehensive search was conducted in PubMed, Cochrane Library, Embase, CINAHL, Web of Science, Scopus, and ProQuest databases from inception to August 11, 2023.

Clinical evaluation of droplet digital pcr for suspected ascites infection in patients with liver cirrhosis.

Background: Droplet digital PCR (ddPCR) is increasingly used in diagnosing clinical pathogens, but its effectiveness in cirrhosis patients with suspected ascites infection remains uncertain.

Methods: The diagnostic performance of ddPCR was assessed in 305 ascites samples, utilizing culture and clinical composite standards. The quantitative value and potential clinical impact of ddPCR were further analyzed in patients with spontaneous bacterial peritonitis.

Survival and neurological function in patients treated with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation and therapeutic hypothermia: a protocol for updating a systematic review.

Introduction: The widespread application of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) has enhanced clinical outcomes for patients experiencing cardiac arrest. However, its effectiveness is still limited and falls short of the desired level. Therapeutic hypothermia, which maintains body temperatures between 32°C and 36°C in cardiac arrest patients treated with ECMO, has been proposed as a potential means of neuroprotection and increased survival rates.

HVS-Unsup: Unsupervised cervical cell instance segmentation method based on human visual simulation.

Instance segmentation plays an important role in the automatic diagnosis of cervical cancer. Although deep learning-based instance segmentation methods can achieve outstanding performance, they need large amounts of labeled data. This results in a huge consumption of manpower and material resources.

Defect-driven nanostructuring of low-nuclearity Pt-Mo ensembles for continuous gas-phase formic acid dehydrogenation.

Supported metal clusters comprising of well-tailored low-nuclearity heteroatoms have great potentials in catalysis owing to the maximized exposure of active sites and metal synergy. However, atomically precise design of these architectures is still challenging for the lack of practical approaches. Here, we report a defect-driven nanostructuring strategy through combining defect engineering of nitrogen-doped carbons and sequential metal depositions to prepare a series of Pt and Mo ensembles ranging from single atoms to sub-nanoclusters.

Neurodynamic approaches for multi-agent distributed optimization.

This paper considers a class of multi-agent distributed convex optimization with a common set of constraints and provides several continuous-time neurodynamic approaches. In problem transformation, l and l penalty methods are used respectively to cast the linear consensus constraint into the objective function, which avoids introducing auxiliary variables and only involves information exchange among primal variables in the process of solving the problem. For nonsmooth cost functions, two differential inclusions with projection operator are proposed.

High expression of HOXC6 predicts a poor prognosis and induces proliferation and inflammation in multiple myeloma cells.

Background: Multiple myeloma (MM) is a common blood system malignance accompanied by monoclonal plasma cell hyperplasia. Homeobox C6 (HOXC6) acts as an oncogene in various cancers, but its function on MM is elusive.

Objective: The role of HOXC6 on MM development was clarified in this study.

Lin28a maintains a subset of adult muscle stem cells in an embryonic-like state.

During homeostasis and after injury, adult muscle stem cells (MuSCs) activate to mediate muscle regeneration. However, much remains unclear regarding the heterogeneous capacity of MuSCs for self-renewal and regeneration. Here, we show that Lin28a is expressed in embryonic limb bud muscle progenitors, and that a rare reserve subset of Lin28aPax7 skeletal MuSCs can respond to injury at adult stage by replenishing the Pax7 MuSC pool to drive muscle regeneration.

Adult progenitor rejuvenation with embryonic factors.

During ageing, adult stem cells' regenerative properties decline, as they undergo replicative senescence and lose both their proliferative and differentiation capacities. In contrast, embryonic and foetal progenitors typically possess heightened proliferative capacities and manifest a more robust regenerative response upon injury and transplantation, despite undergoing many rounds of mitosis. How embryonic and foetal progenitors delay senescence and maintain their proliferative and differentiation capacities after numerous rounds of mitosis, remains unknown.

Biomass-Derived Carbon-Based Multicomponent Integration Catalysts for Electrochemical Water Splitting.

Electrocatalytic water splitting powered by sustainable electricity is a crucial approach for the development of new generation green hydrogen technology. Biomass materials are abundant and renewable, and the application of catalysis can increase the value of some biomass waste and turn waste into fortune. Converting economical and resource-rich biomass into carbon-based multicomponent integrated catalysts (MICs) has been considered as one of the most promising ways to obtain inexpensive, renewable and sustainable electrocatalysts in recent years.

Review of animal transmission experiments of respiratory viruses: Implications for transmission risk of SARS-COV-2 in humans via different routes.

Exploring transmission risk of different routes has major implications for epidemic control. However, disciplinary boundaries have impeded the dissemination of epidemic information, have caused public panic about "air transmission," "air-conditioning transmission," and "environment-to-human transmission," and have triggered "hygiene theater." Animal experiments provide experimental evidence for virus transmission, but more attention is paid to whether transmission is driven by droplets or aerosols and using the dichotomy to describe most transmission events.

Inheritance and Innovation of Pottery Sculpture Technique in Shiwan, China: A Grounded Study from Cultural Ecology.

Ceramics play an important role in human daily life and production practice. Pottery sculpture technique is the core of ceramic making. However, the production process of traditional ceramics is accompanied by high pollution, which has a great impact on human health and the ecological environment.

The qualitative and quantitative relationships between pattern formation and average degree in networked reaction-diffusion systems.

The Turing pattern is an important dynamic behavior characteristic of activator-inhibitor systems. Differentiating from traditional assumption of activator-inhibitor interactions in a spatially continuous domain, a Turing pattern in networked reaction-diffusion systems has received much attention during the past few decades. In spite of its great progress, it still fails to evaluate the precise influences of network topology on pattern formation.

Exponential Convergence of Primal-Dual Dynamics Under General Conditions and Its Application to Distributed Optimization.

In this article, we establish the local and global exponential convergence of a primal-dual dynamics (PDD) for solving equality-constrained optimization problems without strong convexity and full row rank assumption on the equality constraint matrix. Under the metric subregularity of Karush-Kuhn-Tucker (KKT) mapping, we prove the local exponential convergence of the dynamics. Moreover, we establish the global exponential convergence of the dynamics in an invariant subspace under a technically designed condition which is weaker than strong convexity.

Competitive Relationship Between and Under Well-Watered Conditions Transforms Into a Mutualistic Relationship Under Waterlogging Stress.

Competition and abiotic stress such as waterlogging (WL) represent main factors limiting plant growth and determining plant resistance and distribution patterns in wetland ecosystems. One of the basic steps for wetland restoration is to plant trees to ensure a quicker recovery and prevent erosion. Plant survival and adaptation are considered criteria of principal priority for the screening of plant species for wetland ecosystem restoration.

Comparable and adaptable strategies to waterlogging stress regulated by adventitious roots between two contrasting species.

Cleistocalyx operculatus and Syzygium cumini possess a certain waterlogging tolerance. However, the comparable and adaptable strategies to waterlogging stress between these two species on the basis of waterlogging adventitious root (AR) regulation were still unclear. In this study, the plant performance in response to AR regulation based on AR removal (AR-R) and exogenous hormone application was investigated in terms of plant morphology, physiology, photosynthesis and AR traits.